"The state is broke. Unemployments about to tank. Public Health insurance has no funds. All other agencies as well. Its a mess. What in Gods name is happening?" -- A question from a friend
It's rather simple really...
The government spent everything they could squeeze from us when the economy was good. Then, when the economy went bad, instead of cutting back like all of us real people had to; they convinced a bunch of people that the way to make the economy better was to spend MORE.
It's basically the same thing that always happens. Governments don't ever really help economically (when they do, it's tempered by the opportunity cost they impose on others); and they usually hurt. They (in the person of politicians) take credit for when private businesses do well, tax us all as much as they can get away with (thus reducing productivity, efficiency, and future growth) and they "spread the wealth around" a bit to buy votes, planting the idea in the heads of people who don't understand economics (that would be most people), that it was the government making everybody better off; so they can convince you to let them spend even more the NEXT time they do this to us.
Exactly as you would expect...
